Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) secured his third win of the season int he short 55 lap sprint race at Road America this weekend. The win is the latest addition to Palou’s points lead in the championship as his sits comfortably at the top of the table with a 74 point lead. Palou drove his No. 10 Honda fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing to victory by 4.5610 seconds over Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Pato O’Ward finished third in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to round out the top 3.
The win marked Palou’s 7th career victory in his recent positive swing in form. Palou has won 3 of the last 4 races and has shown no signs of slowing down. Palou stated, “We started with a lot of speed. Big mistake by my part in practice two. We went back on track, and it (car) was even better than in practice two. We’re going to try and keep it rolling. We have an amazing team behind us. “It’s been an amazing weekend. I’m super happy. They gave me the pit stop that gave us the win. It was an amazing day for the No. 10 American Legion Ganassi car, and we’re going to keep it going.”
Herta Delivered a Frustrating Finish After Late Pit Stop
One man who isn’t thrilled with the outcome of the race is Colton Herta who led for 34 out of 55 laps but was only able to secure a P5 finish. Herta made his final stop on Lap 40, with Palou pitting for the last time on lap 41. This one lap offset proved to be the deciding factor. Herta was forced to save fuel over the final 14 laps, with Palou on full power.
Palou used that speed advantage to cut Herta’s lead to two-tenths of a second by Lap 45. On Lap 49 Palou drove in the dagger by passing Herta on turn 1 to take the lead and runaway with the victory. Herta was visibly frustrated. Herta stated after the race, “It’s a frustrating one. We had the best car. We were cruising the whole time. I had so much more in it, and we never really got to show it because we were always saving fuel, trying to go that lap later. That’s a killer.”
Full Race Results are Below